Company to pay $2.5M for fuel thefts at airport

By Associated Press
Published September 15, 2005

MIAMI - A company that operated and maintained the fuel depot at Miami International Airport, where 2.7-million gallons of fuel was stolen and sold on the black market, has agreed to pay more than $2.5-million in restitution to the county.

ASIG and some of its employees were named in a racketeering and corruption investigation that included accusations of fuel theft, fake repairs and contract fraud. The schemes dated to April 1999 and totaled about $5.3-million, mostly gleaned from monthly thefts of nearly 30,000 gallons of jet fuel, prosecutors said.

In all, 18 people were arrested and five companies were charged with wrongdoing.

ASIG, which no longer manages the Miami fuel depot, will plead no contest to one count of fraud, said ASIG attorney Ben Kuehne. Kuehne said company executives were unaware of the thievery.